Businessman suing Republic Bank for $10 million, after being prevented from accessing his account

Georgetown, Guyana; – Businessman and international author Dennis Adonis says that he is in the process of filing a $10 million court action against Republic Bank, after the Water Street branch of the regional financial institution repeatedly refused to grant him access to his bank account.

According to Adonis, he has been a customer with the bank for more than fifteen years, but discovered a few weeks ago that he could not access his account; neither could any of his usual online transactions be processed.

He stated that upon visiting the Water Street branch of the bank, he was told by two staffs that someone may have stolen his Visa card credentials and was actively using it at a casino in France.

Amused by this, Adonis said he demanded that his account be protected and that the bank provide him with some evidence of the alleged incident, in addition to making provisions for him to file a security complaint.

However, in despite of his request, the bank refused to tell him whether any monies were taken from his account as a result of the compromised card, the scale of the incident, or provide him with any proof that his account was indeed compromised.

In his view, the information that he was requesting is something that he was entitled to since he is sure that international protocols at casinos abroad would have easily aid in the identity of who had actually stolen his card credentials.

As a matter of fact, Adonis says that he is of the view that the alleged stolen card report is possibly a bogus story, and that the bank is probably up to no good. Hence he is trying to ascertain what is really going on.

He added that a legal notice was subsequently sent to the bank and copied to Governor of the Bank of Guyana, Dr. Gobin Ganga about two weeks ago, demanding that the information be made available to him, and that he be allowed access to his account within two days, since several online subscriptions among other things are reliant on its use.

But in despite of this, Adonis said his lawyers have not heard anything from Republic Bank or the Bank of Guyana.

According to him, the bank’s action has resulted in him losing millions of dollars, in addition to causing him a lot of unwarranted distress.

He contends that his only alternative now is to turn to the court for redress.

Republic Bank has been noted for having a number of similar missteps with a handful of its customers in the past.

The bank operates several branches throughout the Caribbean, and is headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago.

On the other hand, Adonis is an investor in a number of businesses locally and abroad, and also owns a major stake in the Guardian where he serves as its Editor-in-Chief.